When She Returned
by Baelzilnea
Summary: Beth is suffering from PTSD due to her experience at the hospital and the prison. The only person who can snap her out of it is Daryl. They venture away from the group so that she can heal, and they end up healing more hursts than just her own.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: So I have been on a hiatus for several months. I promise to finish my story Crossroads, soon. This is my first story in a while, in which i am choosing to totally disregard the contents of the episode CODA. In this story, Beth has PTSD, and the group has to deal with it, I am sorry if it totally sucks, but I needed to put something out there ya know? Anyways, enjoy. **

"Beth." Rick said carefully. "Put the gun down."

Beth stood with a gun pointed at his head, her whole body was shaking. A wet towel was pooled on the floor as rivulets of water ran down her nude body. Her wet hair was plastered to her face and her neck, cascading down her back and over her shoulders like a blonde curtain. Her chest was heaving and her eyes were wild and unfocused.

"Beth." Said Rick. "You don't want to do that."

"Where is he?" She demanded.

"Beth, please" begged Maggie. She slowly moved towards her with her hands raised.

"STOP!" yelled Beth, swinging the gun around to point at Maggie, and then back to Rick. Carl stood behind Rick, looking from Beth to his father, trying to determine his next move.

The room was tense. NO one was able to react quickly when Beth ran into the room, wrapped in a towel and wet from a shower with Maggie pursuing her. Beth had grabbed Rick's gun, foolishly the only weapon in the room. Everyone else stood away from the three watching the drama unfold. No one spoke for several long moments as Beth panted and shook, swinging the gun from side to side, unable to decide on a target.

"WHERE IS HE?" She screeched.

"Beth." Daryl said softly, making his way into the room. He dropped a string of squirrels on the floor near the door, and placed his crossbow on top. "It's me."

Beth turned her head towards him. "Daryl?"

"Yes." He walked toward her slowly. His hands out in front of him. He came to a stop in front of her, placing his body in between her and Rick. "Baby, it's me. I'm here." He took her face in his hands, pushing her hair out of her face. She looked into his eyes and he could see her come back to herself.

"Daryl." She whispered, tears running down her face. She dropped the gun and threw her arms around him. He wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her to him and trying to cover the front of her body with his own. Maggie handed him the wet towel and he wrapped it around her. She sobbed into his shirtfront and he turned to Rick.

"Maybe it would be best if I take her for a while, so that she can heal and this can stop." He said.

Rick nodded. "Take what you need, we will leave you signs of our movements." Daryl nodded.

"What? NO!" said Maggie.

"Absolutely not!" cried Carol. Daryl ignored them, turning Beth around and helping her out of the room. Rick stopped the two women before they could follow.

Beth stared straight ahead, allowing Daryl to lead her down the hall to her room, to dress her, and to pack their bags. He knelt in front of her and took her hands.

"We are going hunting okay?" he asked. She nodded, and smiled at him. That smile, it wasn't the same smile he was used to, but it was a start. He loved the girl and front of him, and he would make her safe, even if that meant taking her into another kind of dangerous situation. He leaned up and kissed her softly, and she carded her fingers through his hair and pulled him closer.

"I'm sorry" She whispered, pulling away from him. "I dont know what happened."

"Its okay." Daryl assured her, pulling her into his arms. "Its okay."

It wasn't okay, Beth thought, but with Daryl by her side, it would be.

**Review?**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: So many of you asked for this to be its very own story, so i promise to do my best, it may only be a few chapters long, but we will flesh out the drama a little more. I dont know a lot about PTSD, but I only intend for Beth to have a very very mild form of it. This chapter will be really mushy, because i feel mushy tonight. Please enjoy!**

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The sun began to set as they walked through the woods. The slant of the light set the leaves on fire and caused Beth's hair to glow. Daryl would feel content walking through these woods with the blonde beauty by his side, but something was missing from this picturesque view.

She was not smiling, not even a content smirk.

Daryl glanced around the trees. There was a break up ahead, their campsite for the night. Beth brushed against his side and without thinking he twined this fingers with hers. She looked up at him and smiled. It was just a quick quirk of her mouth, but it was something, and it was all that he needed.

It didn't take long to set up their camp. The two quickly rigged and alarm, and set up the tiny tent for two that Rick had sent with them. Then Daryl started a fire and began to warm a couple cans of ravioli over the flames.

Beth had been silently flitting from spot to spot, picking up this, moving that, rummaging through this bag and the next. Daryl forced her to sit and eat her food. She sat across the fire from him and watched him for a while and he pretended not to notice. Then, without a word, she stood and moved to him. She pushed one of his hands that was holding a stick over the fire out of her way and sat down between his legs, leaning back into him. He dropped the stick completely and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into his embrace and setting his chin on the top of her head. They stared at the fire for a long time, never speaking, never needing too. Eventually when the fire had died to glowing embers, and the moon was high overhead, she pulled him into their little tent.

The tent may have been built for two, but in reality it was really made for one. It was cramped and tiny and Beth was practically right on top of Daryl.

He preferred it that way.

They lay together, with her head on his chest and their arms and legs twined. Beth listened to the sound of Daryls strong steady heartbeat and was comforted.

"Can we just sleep together from now on?" She asked softly.

"If you want." Daryl murmured.

"Its just.." She trailed off and Daryl waited patiently for her to finish her sentence. "You make me safe." His arms tightened around her. He would never tell anyone how guilty he felt about the fact that Beth had been taken. He would never forgive himself for failing her in that way.

"It isn't your fault." She said as though she could read his mind. "You saved me. You are saving me now. Maggie tried to keep me away from you but I-I need you with me because you make me safe, I only feel safe when you are with me. Is that too much?" Daryl couldn't quite breathe. He tried to tell himself it was because the light as a feather girl on his chest was crushing him, which was only half true. She was crushing him, but not with her weight. He had never felt so much for any one person and as stupid as it sounded...

She made him safe too.

He pressed a kiss to the top of her head.

"You are never too much." He replied gently, and he felt her smile against his bare chest. There was a slight chance he imagined it, given that he couldn't see her face, but he could feel it searing into his chest like a tattoo, and he held on to it.

"I love you." Beth whispered, almost inaudibly. "I am so sorry that I have gone crazy."

"y'aint crazy," He whispered back "Just a little bruised inside. I love you too. Go to sleep, you need it, y'aint been sleeping." She snuggled closer to him, as if that were possible, and she slowly fell asleep.

He followed her as she did, just as he always would.

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**That was pretty short, but my muses were being buttheads tonight. I hope it came out okay. I will update again as soon as the muses pop back into gear...reviews will help with that, just saying. **

**I like you people.**

**Baelz.**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: After re-reading this I realized how sickeningly sweet it is so far. Sorry not sorry. Anyways, here is the next chapter finally, I honestly don't think this fic will be more than five chapters, I just don't really have the inspiration for it, so I'm kind of making stuff up and it sounds forced and it isn't my best work. I am really sorry for that, but I hope you can enjoy what I do write in order to finish it. I decided to base Beth's experience on another story I wrote that I haven't actually published on here, and so when she was taken she wasn't taken to the hospital, but to an encampment of men who tortured and raped her and the other women they had. FYI in that story the whole team comes in and Daryl is the one who finds her and saves her. I promise all that info is important. So yeah hope ya like it. **

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They ate and packed up their little camp in silence the next morning. Daryl watched Beth's face and Beth pretended she didn't notice. Finally when they were ready to go and they had their packs settled over their shoulder she took his hand and smiled up at him.

A real smile.

He smiled back and they set off into the trees.

They walked for a few hours in silence, and when at one point they came upon a walker, Beth took it out without a moment's hesitation. She looked down at its still body and finally, she opened her mouth and spoke.

She told Daryl about the moment she was taken, how she could see him running after her and how she tried to get out the car door but they knocked her out.

She told him about how they locked her in a room with walkers that were chained to the walls on all sides, with just enough slack that they could reach her unless she stood compact and straight in the very middle of the room.

And how they left her there for hours and hours at a time.

She told him about how they took her by force, over and over, until she finally learned to stop feeling.

She told him about the beatings and the torture, and how some nights she was tied to a walker, front to front, and even though it had no jaw, no teeth, it still tried and tried to bite her.

She told him about how they told her he was dead, how they told her they had found him and killed him horribly, tied down and eaten alive by walkers.

She cried when she told him that.

While she talked he just listened, he stood behind her and he was silent. She couldn't see the way his fists clenched. She couldn't see his face, his face that tried and failed to stay blank. She couldn't see when he lost his battle against his emotions, and tears fell, slowly and steadily, even though he tried to force them away.

Finally she finished, and the sun had journeyed further across the sky than they had expected it to. Daryl stood silently, and didn't move to fix his face even when she turned around to finally look at him.

"Oh." She said, reaching up to wipe his cheeks with her thumbs. He looked away embarrassed. "Don't." She said. He looked at her again.

She couldn't know what he was feeling, an overwhelming sensation of failure and guilt. He thought that he could have saved her if he hadn't let them stay at the funeral home, if he had acknowledged that it was all too good to be true. He could feel his heart breaking for her, and for the hell she went through because of him. But even though he felt all that she couldn't know, because he still wanted to protect her.

He cleared his throat and pressed a quick kiss to her forehead.

'C'mon." He said, and he took her hand and pulled her away from the body of the walker.

She went with him willingly, accepting that he needed time to digest the load she had just dumped on him. She knew he was a man of few words to begin with. She understood.

So she followed him until he brought her to a little creek, and after walking down the creek a little ways, to a pool, filled with clear spring water.

She smiled at him and dropped her pack, quickly and efficiently stripping out of her clothes, unashamed of her nakedness in front of Daryl. She jumped in the pool of water, gasping at its brisk chill. Daryl followed her lead, he tossed his pack next to hers and stripped down, setting his crossbow carefully on a rock so he could reach it if he needed to. He followed her into the water, ignoring the way her eyes on him made him feel.

He figured that if she was comfortable being naked in front of him, he should make himself comfortable being naked in front of her, especially given what he was about to tell her.

Once he reached the water to his ribs, he called out to her, and pulled her close. She relaxed against his chest, and then he opened his mouth and spoke.

He told her first about his mother, and how he loved her even when she was drunk and mean. How he loved her even after she burnt their little house down with a cigarette butt and died in the flames, leaving him with his father.

He told her then about his father, a man who never once showed him affection, unless you count the less severe beatings. The ones that didn't leave scars.

He showed her his scars then.

He let her run her fingers across the raised surfaces.

He didn't even flinch, not a bit.

He told her about his uncle, who scarred him in other ways, ways that weren't actually visible.

And then he told her about Merle. About how Merle was his best friend, and his worst friend. How Merle was always getting him in trouble, and how Merle really liked his drugs. He told her about how Merle showed affection, with harsh hard words and little regard for the feelings of others. He told her how he hated and loved merle in equal measure, and how he wished he could have saved him but he couldn't.

And when he was done, and he finally looked into her eyes, filled with tears as his had been, he told her that they could let them go, all the bad things, if she was willing. She looked into his clear blue eyes and pushed his hair off his forehead and nodded.

And they both took a deep breath.

And he pulled them under.

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Beth stretched as she lay on the rocky shore of the spring pool. The sun was low in the sky and Daryl had a fire going behind her. She looked at the stars and then as the moon that were chasing the sun away. Then she looked at Daryl, who was looking at her, and she smiled.

A real smile.

And it didn't fade.

He came over to where she was, and she admired him, wearing nothing but his worn jeans.

"Are we safe here?" She asked him. He nodded.

"I checked it all out, we're safe here for now, we have water here, rock over there," he pointed to her left, where there was a wall of rock that wrapped around into the trees. "So if we set up our tent just there," he pointed again "all we gotta do is set up a little alarm chain just there," pointing to their right, " and we're golden." Beth sat up and scooched back until she was sitting between his legs, resting her back against his chest. His arms found his way around her waist, and she sighed in contentment.

"We are gonna be okay aren't we?" She asked. She could feel him nod as his chin bumped her head twice. "I think I am ready to go back." She tilted her head so that she could see him, "but only if you promise to keep me close."

He kissed her, and she twisted around to reach him better.

"Course."

"And let me hunt with you? And go on runs? I can take care of myself, but…I just don't want to be separated again, it seems like bad things happen when we are separated."

"Beth, don't you worry about anything, we are gonna be okay." She smiled up at him, and he kissed her again.

The sun finally sank behind the trees.

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**So that is that, I hope you liked it, I will try to finish this story out today, and it will be done, but please review this chapter, I think it turned out a little better than I expected, but I still would appreciate a little love:)))**


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